Miniature giant space hamster
}} The miniature giant space hamster is a creature native to the Prime Material Plane. It is a dwarf variant of the giant space hamster which has been bred to be exactly the same size as an ordinary hamster. The miniature giant space hamster is noted for being gentle with children. It has been sold as an exotic rarity in the planar city of Sigil, though in limited supply. It was priced at 1 gp, around ten times the price of a squirrel. It is often sold as a pet. Ecology Miniature giant space hamsters can make small nests in small holes in the base of a wall. They can easily be befriended with an offering of food. They have no method of attacks, and do not pose a threat. History Creation The original giant space hamster was created by an animal breeder's guild of tinker gnomes, a subspecies of gnome native to the world of Krynn. Further development by the guild led to numerous offshoots of the species, including the sabre-toothed giant space hamster, the carnivorous flying giant space hamster, the fire-breathing phase doppelganger giant space hamster, and the miniature giant space hamster. This has been described as a good example of the tinker gnome tendence of not knowing when to stop. t Publication history See also the publication history for the regular giant space hamster. AD&D 2nd edition The miniature giant space hamster first appeared in . It is described as the same size as a normal hamster. The origins of the miniature giant space hamster were described in . By far the most well-known reference to this creature is Boo, the beloved hamster owned by in the 1998 computer roleplaying game Baldur's Gate. Minsc claims that Boo is not just any hamster, but a miniature giant space hamster. Whether or not he is correct has not been definitively stated in any canonical source. D&D 4th edition The D&D Encounters Season 15 adventure Murder in Baldur's Gate (2013) features a large statue called the Beloved Ranger, which depicts the hero Minsc holding his hamster Boo. Minsc is said to have claimed Boo is a "giant pygmy space hamster". All of the people love the legend of Minsc and Boo, and the statue is a popular landmark. When vandals steal the statue's hands along with Boo, the entire city is outraged, with officials offering massive rewards for the capture of the vandals and demanding their murder. D&D 5th edition In , the statue of Minsc and his alleged miniature giant space hamster Boo in Baldur's Gate is revealed to have been the real petrified Minsc and Boo. When the two were freed, the people of the city missed the statue enough that a replacement statue of Minsc and Boo was commissioned. Minsc and Boo are depicted in . D&D 5e rules for the miniature giant space monster finally appear in , which defines it as statistically identical to the rat in the Monster Manual, except that it has no attacks and is worth no XP. Creative origins The miniature giant space hamster was the invention of Dragon magazine editor Roger Moore, who contributed the giant space hamster and its miniature variant to the . A possible early inspiration for the original giant space hamster appeared in the adventure The Circus of Gandolfo, , set in a fantastic fairground featuring ferris wheels powered by magically-enlarged hamsters. Roger Moore subsequently joked about the existence of a "giant cave hamster" in his editorial, "Errers", in . , describes a whimsical clockwork spaceship called the Gnomish Sidewheeler, whose list price of 40,000 gp is not inclusive of "the giant hamsters that power the side wheels and wind the giant rubber band". Although almost certainly a joke entry, these large furry creatures led to the inclusion of a full writeup for the "Hamster, Giant Space" in the . This writeup introduced sixteen bizarre and comical variants, including the miniature giant space hamster. Reception and influence In 1991, Dragon Magazine issue 171 asked readers to submit reasons why they love giant space hamsters. The contest received over 120 entries, and included numerous suggestions for new variants of giant space hamster. Among them were the Miniature Giant Russian Dwarf Giant Space Hamster. One reader claimed that three miniature giant space hamsters powered their Geo Metro. In , Ed Greenwood signed off by saying: : "Ed Greenwood created the Forgotten Realms® setting, the wizard Elminster, and bearded Faerûnian dwarven women—but he wants it to be known that it was Roger Moore who created the Giant Space Hamster." References Category:Beasts